Three Minutes of Writhing

A Music Video trope, frequently done with female solo artists, but also with dozens of male R&B/pop performers. It involves them dancing about in a skimpy outfit for the entirety (or vast majority) of the video.

Examples of Three Minutes of Writhing include:

• Name a Mariah Carey video. Any Mariah Carey video. "I'll Be Lovin' U Long Time" in particular.
  • And then there's a clip by Monty Oum of Dead Fantasy fame, with Kasumi, Tifa, and Cissnei moving it to "Obsessed".
• Since clearly the gamers are stepping up Bayonetta would like to writhe for you.
• Britney Spears. The video for Toxic is notable for having long sequences of Spears literally writhing and nothing more, wearing only a layer of Swarowski crystals.
• Madonna was an early pioneer for overtly sexual music movements in videos. This made a comeback in the video for 2008's "Celebration".
• Kylie Minogue has done this for a while.
• This is pretty much why the Pussycat Dolls exist.
• For some literal writhing, as well as Playing to The Fetishes, Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails is not immune.
• Played straight in Taylor Swift's "The Story of Us" music video, where the camera frequently cuts from the main storyline to Swift singing in the library, squirming against a wall.
• Rihanna, "Umbrella".
  • All of Rihanna's videos are of her pretending to walk the catwalk in barely-there outfits. She's not really marketed to the crowd that watches singers for their singing ability.
• Shakira is particularly famous for shaking her hips. The "Beautiful Liar" video is noteworthy, because it's three minutes of writhing with Beyonce.
• The White Stripes' video for I Just Don't Know What To Do With Myself, which consisted entirely of a scantily-clad Kate Moss performing a pole dance.
• Queenadreena's 'I Adore You' contains much writhing by scantily-clad vocalist Katie-Jane Garside, but it is of an unnerving quality.
  • And FM Doll is nothing but that. Writhing about whilst looking like she's been dragged through a bush backwards and is currently having a panic attack is just what Katie-Jane Garside does.
• Rare Male Example: Morrissey's "November Spawned A Monster". a pretty odd choice because the actual song is about the plight of a disabled woman, and midway through the song an actress, apparently portraying said woman, starts letting out terrifying unintelligible cries. This makes sense if you're paying attention to the lyrics, but if you're too busy watching Morrissey suggestively writhe around rock formations in a desert while wearing tight pants and a mesh v-neck shirt, it just seems inexplicable. When the video appeared on Beavis and Butthead, Beavis commented "quit whining, go out and get a job and some good clothes... and another thing, stay away from old rocks!"
• Christina Aguilera, especially during her "Dirrty" phase.
• Have you forgotten Gillian Anderson in the Extremis video by Hal?
• Parodied by Felicia Day and the cast of The Guild in "Do You Want To Date My Avatar", which is basically about cybersex.
• Mocked mercilessly in the Jewel video "Intuition" which includes fake TRL quotes like "Her voice sounds so much better in that outfit!"
• In the 80's, we had Tawny Kitaen writhing around in numerous Whitesnake videos. This was parodied when Kitaen appeared in the video for Bowling For Soup's 1985.
• Olivia Newton-John subverted this trope in "Physical", by replacing it with Three Minutes Of Flexing instead: her video is set in a gym, in which she and some fat guys work out, the latter being transformed into some Grade-A beefcake for the final chorus. Still lots of bodily contortions and skin, but at least there's a pretense of plot.
• Quite a few videos by Lady Gaga. For example, Just Dance.
  • "Bad Romance" uses the trope in a disturbing context. "Alejandro" uses it completely straight, but with men rather than women.
• The video for "Call On Me" by Eric Prydz notoriously consisted entirely of busty women doing eroticised aerobics in Stripperiffic gymwear.
• Used to interrogate a POW in Rudenko's "Everybody".
• Another male example, Take That had a fair bit of that in their 90s videos
• Fergie's primary role in the Black Eyed Peas (My Humps, anyone?). She tends to do it when she goes solo too (Fergalicious is especially guilty).
• Scott Weiland in the Stone Temple Pilots' "Sour Girl" spends the video twisting his bare torso while Sarah Michelle Gellar drapes herself over him like a scarf.
• Parodied in "Pop Song" by Jon Lajoie. The video is pretty much a bunch of girls dancing with little pieces of Jon and some backup dancers:

Shake that ass girl my rhymes are gettin lazy lazy,
The things I'm talking about have nothing to do with the song baby,
But it don't matter won't you show me that thong baby?

• The video for Florence + the Machine's cover of You've Got The Love.
  • She writhes a fair bit in Drumming Song too. On the floor too.
• Miley Cyrus' music videos for Can't Be Tamed, Who Owns My Heart and Party In The USA.
• R&B singer Ciara, especially in the Ride video where in one scene she wears nothing but a slingshot bikini with a long fur coat over it.
• Another male example would be the R&B group H-Town. Whom more or less danced like male strippers.
• Nicki Minaj's videos usually qualify. Especially notable is the video for "Massive Attack", which takes this trope literally and has a bunch of double jointed soldiers writhing.
• Literally done by Sharon den Adel in most of Within Temptation's music videos, although she prefers elaborate gowns to skimpy outfits. See "Ice Queen".
• Male R&B singer Genuwine.
• The woman in the video for the Warrant's "Cherry Pie".
  • Her name is Bobbi Brown. She dated the lead singer of Warrant for a while, after achieving slight fame on the 1980's talent show "Star Search". Her talent was being pretty... literally.
• Rather darkly parodied by SebastiAn's "Love In Motion" video, which applies this trope to a 10 year old girl.
• Ellie Goulding's "Lights" video. Gyrating around in a short dress? Check.
• The video for Miley Cyrus' 2013 song "Adore You" is three and some minutes of a rather different kind of writhing...